The wheels have come off in New York, and now we watch the wreckage of the Knicks season for the same reason we stare at car accidents as we drive past. There is infighting about the triangle offense, the future of the team’s biggest star with the organization is in question, the future of the first year head coach is in question, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The one thing worth pointing to with the Knicks’ future? Kristaps Porzingis.
He realized, even back when the Knicks started 14-10, that things were going to go sideways, he told Al Iannazzone of Newsday.“I think it was pretty easy to tell from the inside that we’re not that good of a team,” Porzingis said after Sunday’s practice. “We can win games based off of our talent, but that’s not going to last long, and that’s exactly what happened.”
“Just more work, attention to details, keep growing as a team,” he said. “Obviously, a good team needs some time to play together. This was our first year for most guys playing together. It never happens like that: You trade a couple of players and there you go, you’re a championship contender.
“It’s understandable that we weren’t going to win the championship, but I could tell that we weren’t there yet where we wanted to be.”
Porzingis has said this before, saying in January he was frustrated, then again just a few days ago he said the team was confused top to bottom.
There seems to be a “we’re the Knicks, we can’t rebuild” mentality in Madison Square Garden that leads to poor short term moves (Derrick Rose, the Joakim Noah contract). Most Knicks fans I talk to would be good with a couple of years of losses and missing the playoffs if there was a plan long-term to build around Porzingis. Right now it’s hard to discern any long-term plan they are going to stick with.
This summer expect changes to come to New York. The only question is which ones?